Peter Van Sant

He was familiar with this affluent part of Cherokee County and figured what happened here was an accident.

They didn't even think the case would take long.

Once he drove up the Ferris' long driveway, Detective Hayes got out of his car and made his way to the burn pile.

Give me a sense of what you saw as you're walking up to it.

Describe it for me.

And while Detective Hayes had never investigated a body found in a burn pile before, one thing was certain.

Which suggested someone must have placed him there.

What Detective Hayes first thought could have been a tragic accident now looked like a murder.

They brought in canines to help search the property.

Detective Hayes went inside the house.

Any evidence whatsoever in the house of a break-in?

No.

Any sign of a struggle inside that house, that a battle had gone on there?

Investigators then checked if there was more blood, invisible to the naked eye, by spraying a special chemical across the floor.

And does that suggest in any way some sort of progression of an attack on Gary?

Spots of blood weren't the only things they found in the basement.

One of Detective Hayes' colleagues later noticed something on the floor.

He sees it, kind of sees a shiny object or something, gets closer, looks and says, that's a bullet.

Outside, sheriff's deputies found more evidence.

Scott told detectives that the tractor Gary regularly used was parked in the yard and not under the shed where Gary usually parked.